Should Horse Meat Be Illegal?

Five years ago, meatpacking plants that slaughtered and processed horse meat were outlawed in the U.S. But, according to a New York Times article out this week, the impact of shutting down the plants has been mixed, with many unwanted animals now making long, hard journeys to Canada or Mexico to meet the same fate.

It’s worth a read, if only because it brings to light the contoured moral conundrums that meat eaters face on a daily basis. Horse meat is a slippery slope in both directions: on one hand, if we can slaughter horses, why not dogs? On the other, if we can slaughter cows, why not horses?

The issue is complicated further if you look to food cultures around the world. Foreign food traditions inspire culinary creativity in America all the time, but is the Japanese basashi (horse sashimi) one dish that could never fly stateside?

The Times article is typically zippy, but if you want to learn and think more about this stuff, you couldn’t do better than Karen Olsson’s piece in the Texas Monthly from 2006. She wrote it when the ban was still being debated in congress, and had long conversations with a lot of people on both sides of the issue (and came up with the word “hippocalypse,” earning our lifelong respect as a portmanteau pro).